EAST CLEVELAND TATTLER

Issue Number 30, December 2012 GO T INSIDE POLITICAL INFORMA TION? Send it to eastc le velandleaks@gmail.com GOT INFORMATION? eastcle lev

PLAIN DEALER REPORTER MANIPULATES READERS FOR FITZGERALD

PD REPORTERS DEAL WITH ED!!

Is county government really reformed or has the Plain Dealers Laura Johnston cut a deal with county executive Ed Fitzgerald to give him favorable coverage in exchange for a job if the newspaper lays her off?
By CLYDE CLODHOPPER Who can blame her? Its a well-known fact that the Plain Dealer is losing money and importance in northeast Ohio. Members of the Plain Dealers News Guild tentatively agreed to a contract to limit the number of lay-offs in the newsroom in December. Jobs have already been cut by one-third. Without a deal with the Plain Dealers management, more editorial staffing cuts will come next year. Cuyahoga County beat reporter Laura Johnston and her husband Craig Rimlinger have a toddler son the couple are raising in their $153,000 University Heights homes. He works for Keybank. Johnston doesnt have the seniority of other Plain Dealer reporters who are more protected from lay-off, so if in the next six months shes laid-off, County Executive Ed Fitzgerald is alleged to have told the reporter who covers his administration on assignment that hes got her back. If this is true then Johnston has abused the trust of her job as a journalist, said publisher and editor Eric Brewer. Ive been watching Plain Dealer reporters cut side deals since I worked for the Cleveland Press in 1981. Its frustrating when youre in the business and see the public being manipulated into making bad decisions by self-dealing reporters, editors and publishers. The Plain Dealers employees have been the worst. Brewer said Plain Dealer reporters, editors and publishers are notorious for using the newspapers editorial pages to promote their own agendas, the agendas of their friends, and the agenda of the people who pay them.

PD REPORTERS HAVE A HISTORY OF MANIPULATING READERS FOR JOBS

Laura Johnston Ed Fitzgerald Terry Egger Deborah Simmons

MONKEY SEE, MONKEY DO. If Plain Dealer publisher Terry Egger can manipulate Cuyahoga county voters into supporting a half-assed reform plan, then why cant a reporter like Laura Johnston cut a side deal with a politician like Ed Fitzgerald to get a better paying job in exchange for favorable coverage before shes laid off? Egger and editor Deborah Simmons should immediately remove Johnston from the county government beat and either assign or hire a reporter with more integrity, insight and talent to cover Fitzgeralds administration. Hey Deb. Tell reporters that a better product not begging for readers will keep the Plain Dealer alive.

Brewer said ex-editorial pages editor Brent Larkin is an attorney who kept a desk in attorney John Climaco and criminal law attorney Angelo Lonardos law offices. Larkin is married to Mary Ann Consolo, whose father and uncle own Murray Hill Construction. The company got and still gets lucrative contracts from the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, a high-spending government agency whose activities are rarely seen in print. The Larkin-controlled editorial pages endorsed Jane Campbell for mayor when her husband, Hunter Morrison, supervised Larkins wife at Cleveland city hall. Larkin got pissed at Brewer when he published the Political Reporter and exposed that Plain Dealers

editorial pages editor had done legal work for Regina Vild when she got into a family squabble with brother John Vild over the sale of their aunts Murray Hill home. Larkins editorial pages called for John Vilds indictment without him sharing his lawyer-client relationship with the mans sister. Former George Voinovich aide Regina Vild was maid of honor at his wedding to Mary Ann Consolo. Reporter Allison Grant admitted that Larkin convinced her to write a front page story about John Vild prior to an editorial that called for his indictment. WEWS-TV5 reporter Ed Galleks wife, Kim Gallek, was once Jimmy Dimora, Tim Hagan and Peter Lawson Jones public relations manager when they served as commissioners.

EAST CLEVELAND TA TTLER, NO . 30, DECEMBER 2012 TATTLER, NO.

THE ST OR Y BEHIND THE ST OR Y NO ONES TELLING! STOR ORY STOR ORY

Johnstons slanted coverage and alleged side deal with Fitzgerald hides his administrations incompetency from Plain Dealer readers
Ex-Plain Dealer executive editor David Abbott parlayed his control over the newspapers coverage of county officials into a well-paid job as county administrator. Former Plain Dealer executive editor David Hopcraft got so tight with George and Paul Voinovich by soft-pedaling coverage of the exU.S. Senators mayoral administration that he ended up working as Pauls V Group spokesman. In 2009 publisher Terry Egger invested $15,000 with the Cleveland Partnership to raise $150,000 to promote Bill Mason, Martin Zanotti and Bruce Akers county reform plan, and then squashed any negative coverage of the issue. Out of 10,000 counties in America, approximately 170 were led by county executives. The majority of those counties had less than 75,000 residents. The FBI was investigating five county executives in five different counties at the time the Plain Dealer was promoting the trios reform plan, but none of that information made it into Johnstons stories. In Summit County, which was the only one of 88 Ohio counties operating under the reform plan backed by Egger, two top officials were indicted, prosecuted and convicted of bribery. Egger and Johnston made sure that information never saw the light of day. Egger controlled the Plain Dealer and the Plain Dealer pounded the thought into the publics mind that getting rid of the entire county government structure instead of the bad apples was the way to go, Brewer said. I remember a story Johnston wrote that included my name in the headline and a prominent picture. It said I was against the plan. There were two sentences quoting me as an opponent while the entire article was devoted to praising what Mason, Zanotti and Akers were doing. Brewer said anyone with a modicum of intelligence who reads the puff pieces Johnston has written about Fitzgeralds shoddy implementation of the new county charter and mismanagement of the countys vast government network of employees and boards can see her angle. Fitzgerald is a good reformer and the county council is bad. Johnstons coverage of Fitzgeralds administration is always slanted in his favor, Brewer said. A competent editor would know that no politician is as good as Johnstons coverage has portrayed him. The fact that Fitzgerald gets zero criticism gives credence to the idea that something else is going on between the reporter and the politician shes assigned to investigate. Plain Dealer reporters are uneasy about their futures. Theyre human. Anyone who knows they might soon be without a job wont make editorial enemies with someone who can employ them, especially if an offer has been extended. But what might be a benefit to the reporter is a liability for readers who think theyre reading the truth from a reporter whos bought into the idea of a favor for a job. Egger and Advance Communications talk of more job cuts and a three-day-a-week newspaper places readers on notice that stories written about public figures by insecure reporters should be viewed warily. Public records show, as an example, that within the past three weeks two women, Mariah Crenshaw and Frances Caldwell, have spoken at two county council meetings to raise serious issues about how Fitzgeralds administration has performed its duties. Crenshaw blasted Fitzgeralds handling of three-year-old Camilia Terrys case twice before the child was murdered by her mother. Caldwell has criticized a policy Fitzgerald implemented that prevents a person who buys a tax delinquent property from entering a payment plan if the previous owner defaulted on one when they owned it. Caldwell filed two injunctions against Fitzgeralds administration to stop him from selling a $30,000 home she purchased from Cybernet Properties in June 2012 for an exdaughter in law and her two grandchildren. Her injunctions, filed in Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Richard Ambroses court, claimed she bought the home not knowing of its delinquent property tax or foreclosure status until the owner gave her documents the day she delivered his final payment. Caldwell immediately went to the County Treasurers office to enter a payment plan but was rejected by employees who said Fitzgerald, County Treasurer Richard Sensenbrenner and Chief Financial Officer Wade Steen had implemented a new policy her injunction reads. Since Cybernet had defaulted on its payment plan, she could not enter one. Caldwells pleadings, and her email to Steen and the county council, revealed that the reason behind Fitzgeralds policy was to keep people who had defaulted on a tax payment plan from flipping title of it to another property owner to avoid their liability. Caldwell called it dumb. Steen sent an email to the county council and prosecutor accusing Caldwell of being married to Cybernets owner and claimed they had previously switched titles to another property to avoid paying property taxes. Fitzgerald employees Steen and Sensenbrenner said the only way for Caldwell to be given a payment plan was if she moved into the home shed bought for her family. The problem with Steens accusations is that none of them were true. Caldwell ripped Steen in an email pointing out that she was not married to Cybernet owner Lawrence Calloway and that the only business she had with him was to buy a property he didnt tell her was in foreclosure. She turned her email into a public records request and demanded that Steen produce documents to support his false claim or else be sued for defamation. Caldwell sent the information to the media and got a response from Johnston. The story, however, has not appeared in the Plain Dealer. At a recent county council meeting Caldwell told legislators that Steen has failed to respond to her request to validate his false claims in writing. The Plain Dealers credibility is dwindling fast, Brewer said. Newspaper publishing and television news has been changed by a generation of cheaters. The phone tapping scandal with Rupert Murdochs publications in Great Britain. Photoshopped news photographs. Egger set the example for Johnston when he used the newspaper to achieve a personal agenda. He has only himself to blame for Johnstons conduct if its true. Hes the boss.

Norton still getting paid after voters reject extra money for safety director
Theres an old saying that a hard head makes a soft ass. If thats the case, East Cleveland Mayor Gary Nortons tush must be like cotton. Voters soundly rejected a November referendum Norton sought on a council ordinance that removed the extra $45,000 a year he paid himself as safety director. Their vote meant that Norton had to stop paying himself the Norton is working on his insanity plea extra cash immediately and to return the money hed already been paid since the beginning of the year. Payroll records obtained by the East Cleveland Tattler show that East Clevelands normal $384,000 bi-weekly payroll doubled in the last pay period to over $750,000 under newly-appointed finance director Irene Crowell. Documents reveal that Crowell has authorized Norton to be paid $3200 instead of his normal wages of about $1500 twice since voters rejected his referendum Hes doing what he wants and it make no sense, said Councilman Nathaniel Martin. Hes already under several investigations and the council filed a Writ of Mandamus against him to follow the law. Some people dont believe fat meat is greasy. Hell learn. According to a source, Norton is being investigated by the Ohio Ethics Commission after being referred to the agency by Ohio Auditor of State David Yost for violating the states open meetings law to pass legislation hed written to give himself the money in 2009 right before he took office as mayor.
CUYAHOGA COUNTY WORKERS! Keep the tips coming. If you know of any act of incompetency from Ed Fitzgerald and his administration, or know his secrets, send tips to eastclevelandleaks@gmail.com Were more secret than the mob.